vibed/edu/.beans/edu-4u7w--edu-write-chapter-on-shader-programming.md

title	status	type	priority	created_at	updated_at
edu: write chapter on shader programming	completed	feature	low	2026-03-10T23:30:00Z	2026-03-16T02:32:28Z

Background

From edu/TODO.md: Hands-on: Shader programming.

A practical introduction to GPU shaders, written with Rust as the host language. The course covers the graphics pipeline conceptually and has hands-on exercises writing WGSL shaders driven by wgpu.

Content outline (suggested)

Part 1 — The GPU and the Graphics Pipeline

1. CPU vs GPU: parallel execution model
2. The programmable pipeline: vertex shaders, fragment shaders, compute shaders
3. What is WGSL? (WebGPU Shading Language) — syntax overview

Part 2 — Setting Up with wgpu

4. What is wgpu? Cross-platform graphics API in Rust
5. Exercise 1: Create a window and clear it to a colour (the GPU 'hello world')
6. The render loop: swap chains, frames, command encoders

Part 3 — Vertex and Fragment Shaders

7. Vertices, buffers, and the vertex shader
8. Interpolation and the fragment shader
9. Exercise 2: Draw a coloured triangle
10. Exercise 3: Animate the triangle using a time uniform

Part 4 — Textures and Samplers

11. Texture coordinates (UVs), texture creation, sampler config
12. Exercise 4: Render a textured quad

Part 5 — Compute Shaders

13. Compute pipelines: dispatching work groups
14. Storage buffers and read/write access from WGSL
15. Exercise 5: GPU-accelerate a particle simulation

Part 6 — Going Further

16. Post-processing effects (bloom, blur) — conceptual overview
17. Signed Distance Fields for font rendering
18. Resources: Learn WGPU tutorial, Shadertoy, The Book of Shaders

File to create

• edu/src/shaders.md
• Add to edu/src/SUMMARY.md under a # Graphics section

Summary of Changes

All 18 sections written with full educational content covering the GPU execution model, wgpu setup, vertex/fragment shaders, textures, compute shaders, and advanced topics. ~4400 lines of content including full Rust+WGSL code examples, ASCII diagrams, and 5 hands-on exercises.